According to a recent Oxfam report, the richest 1% of the world have seized over two-thirds of $42 trillion of wealth produced since 2020, two times as much money as the bottom 99%.
For the very first time in 25 years, immense wealth and abject poverty have grown at the same rate
According to the study, which was released on the first day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the richest 1% have captured over half of all new wealth over the last decade.
The research also reveals that billionaires’ wealth has increased dramatically throughout the pandemic and the subsequent cost-of-living crisis years from 2020 forward, with the richest 1% capturing $26 trillion (63%) of all new wealth. With fast-expanding food and energy prices, billionaire wealth soared in 2022.
The analysis also finds that 95 food and energy businesses quadrupled their earnings in 2022, with 84% of it going to wealthier shareholders, increasing the income gap.
The research also stresses that just 4 cents of every tax dollar currently comes from wealth taxes, with half of the world’s billionaires residing in nations with no estate tax for direct descendants, enabling them to pass over a $5 trillion tax-free treasure trove to their successors.
Oxfam is pushing for a structural and broad rise in super-rich taxation to recoup crisis gains fueled by state funding and profiteering.
